Burial at Sea - Episode 0
by Insane Guy of DOOM
Summary: Elizabeth has come to Rapture to settle a debt. But before Elizabeth can have her fateful meeting with Booker DeWitt, she needs to perform a small favor to some old 'friends', and help two familiar faces escape the doomed city. A prequel to Burial at Sea, containing Lutecest and a greater tie-in to BioShock 2.
1. The Offer

_This is the next and final part of the Rapture Lutece series. If you haven't read the first part, "Fact from Myth: Lutece and Lutece, Lifting Rapture into the Future," you should still be able to understand this story._

Burial at Sea – Episode 0

1.

The Offer

"While there are constants across universes, they way these constants are expressed are infinitely variable."

_A Treatise on the Many-Worlds Hypothesis_

_-_R. Lutece, 1937

"If you're to do this, you must remember—"

"Enough, I've made up my mind. Comstock _has_ to pay for what he did."

"We cannot stop her."

"Then all we can offer now is a word of advice."

"Advice I doubt she'll heed."

"Just remember while you're down there, she who fights monsters..."

"Runs the risk of becoming a monster herself."

###

Elizabeth strolled through the seventh floor of the 907 Market Street housing complex. Her eyes were kept narrow as she scanned the lines of doors before her. She took a final drag from her cigarette, then placed it in a nearby ashtray and continued walking. Market Street wasn't the fanciest part of Rapture live in, but it was better than some other housing areas. The wallpaper wasn't peeling, and the elevator almost always worked.

There was a door just up ahead on the right, the one she'd come looking for. Engraved on the door was the name "Lutece". Elizabeth raised her fist and pounded it on the door several times. She tapped her foot waiting for someone to answer. There were still had several weeks before it was time meet with "Booker," but Elizabeth also wanted this errand done as soon as possible.

There was a soft click and the door slowly swung open.

"Hello?" A man who was, and was not, Robert Lutece asked.

"Hello Robert. I need you to get Rosalind, what I'm going say I need to say to both of you." Elizabeth stared at Robert with a blank face. Robert shied away from her eye contact.

"Excuse me, but do I know you?" Elizabeth continued to stare. Robert turned his head and yelled, "Rosalind, come here! There's a woman who claims to know us at the door."

Rosalind came up behind Robert. He stepped aside so that the two of them could both stand in front of Elizabeth. The two of them looked nearly identical to the Luteces that Elizabeth knew, the only difference being their suits were tailored in style more befitting of the 1950s. This Robert also had a trilby hat.

"Yes, what do you want?" Rosalind frowned.

"My name is Elizabeth, and I can get you out of Rapture." She waited for her offer to sink for the Luteces.

They both scowled at Elizabeth. "You're one of Ryan's police, aren't you?" Rosalind scoffed. "Well I assure you that you'll find no evidence of treason in this home."

Elizabeth stepped forward, getting as close to the Luteces as could be considered polite. "I'm not working for Andrew Ryan. I'm not working for anyone." Honesty wasn't convincing them, so Elizabeth lowered her gaze to Rosalind's stomach. "And I know why you need to get out of Rapture."

Robert broke the silence. "Who are you, really? Why would you help us?" Elizabeth paused, and placed her index finger on her chin. How to explain this in a way they'd believe?

"Like I said, I'm Elizabeth. I'm… doing this a favor for some mutual friends." The Luteces stepped further into their home, while Rosalind grabbed the doorknob.

"Listen!" Elizabeth shoved out her hand to stop the door from closing on her. "In a few weeks, there's going to be a civil war, and if you stay here, you'll die." The Luteces were unmoved. Rosalind resumed trying to close the door.

Discretion had failed, so Elizabeth opened a small tear between herself and the Luteces. The twins lurched back, then stared in awe at the glimmering window before them. Through it were strange buildings that appeared to be floating among the clouds.

"That's a—" Rosalind began to say.

"A tear, yes. Just like the one you used to bring Robert here." Elizabeth closed the tear and smiled smugly at the Luteces. "Now I'm going to ask you one last time. Will you come with me and escape, or stay here and die?"

Robert and Rosalind stared at each other, silently debating their answer to Elizabeth. They turned to Elizabeth and nodded.

"We'll need to pack some essentials of course," Rosalind said and began to close the door again.

"No. If we're doing this, we're doing this now."

"But won't we need money? Clothing? For the surface?" Robert asked. Elizabeth had already started walking back to the elevator. The Luteces shrugged and hurried after her.

###

The group emerged from 907 and out into Market Street proper. Citizens of Rapture were bustling about in their day-to-day activities, leaving Elizabeth and the Luteces mere specs in a crowd.

"Now what direction is Lutece Labs?" Elizabeth asked as they stood to the side of the housing complex.

"I thought you said we were leaving?" Rosalind frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

"We are, but we need to get something from your lab first," Elizabeth glared back, letting the twins know this wasn't up for discussion.

"I'm afraid even if we wanted to go there, we cannot," Robert said. "The entire block was closed off after Fontaine was killed. The place is crawling with all manner of degenerates and splicers now."

Elizabeth glanced around to make sure they weren't being observed. She opened a small tear and withdrew a handgun from it. "Then we'll fight our way in."

"Are you mad?" Robert asked.

"Even if we didn't go to Lutece Labs, trust me, we're not getting out of here peacefully." Elizabeth inspected the gun, checking to see if it was loaded. It was.

"I'm starting to reconsider your offer." Robert backed away from Elizabeth.

"Fine, stay and die here." Elizabeth walked away from the Luteces. "Stay and let _your child_ die here." She smirked as the sound of the Luteces' footsteps approached.

###


	2. Rapture Metro

_Happy 6th of July, the day in 1912 that Infinite took place!_

2.

Rapture Metro

Elizabeth, Robert, and Rosalind picked up their pace; headed to the metro station at Apollo Square. They reached the security door leading out from Market Street when a heavily drunk man staggered by.

"Outta' th' way… uh, mister," Booker slurred. He shoved Elizabeth to the side. She threw her arms out to steady herself, but DeWitt had already passed them by.

Elizabeth was taken aback when she realized exactly who the drunk was. She'd thought she would be prepared for encountering this not-Booker. But with that deathly white hair, she could only see Zachary Comstock. Seeing Comstock again, that was a different matter entirely.

"Don't mind DeWitt, he's just a drunk," Robert said, picking up on Elizabeth's discomfort.

"You know," Rosalind piped up. "A few weeks I saw him retrieving an entire cake from the garbage and then eating in on the spot."

"I find that hard to believe." Robert raised his eyebrow.

"I swear, he ate the thing right out of the trashcan; didn't even pay attention to his many onlookers."

"I meant I find it hard to believe that someone would throw away an entire cake."

Elizabeth kept her head down while clenching and unclenching her hands. In Columbia, when she was a just a girl in a tower sans tower, she had found the Luteces' banter a mixture of charming and more than a little creepy. But that was, in some way literally, a lifetime ago. Now Elizabeth just found it annoying and a hindrance to her mission.

"Come on. We're wasting time." Elizabeth brushed her skirt off and stormed through the door.

###

The Rapture Metro station was abuzz with activity, even more so than Market Street, for good reason. Unless one owned a personal bathysphere this was the only realistic way to travel through the different districts of Rapture.

"Bathysphere or tram?" Elizabeth asked, pointing to the different sections of the metro.

"Bathysphere," Rosalind answered. "It'll be faster and more private. I'd like to be able to discuss some terms of our _agreement _in a private setting."

The three walked towards the ticket booths, all of which had lines extending far beyond their roped off waiting areas.

"Everyone is doing their New Year's Eve shopping, I imagine. It starts earlier every year." Robert noted as he settled in line behind Elizabeth, Rosalind last. The line was moving at a glacial place, severely testing the group's patience.

To distract herself, Elizabeth let her gaze wander and take in the sights of the metro. She had been here before; she had been to most of Rapture during her time undercover as Cohen's "Songbird," but something caught her eye today. There were the familiar advertisements for plasmids, tonics, and the strangely common Nico-Time pregnant women cigarettes as per usual. However there were also multiple posters lining the wall in between the ads, each with the same statement.

"Wanted: Jacob Blott," Elizabeth murmured as she read over the nearest poster. Beneath the text was a drawing of a deranged-looking man, clearly a splicer. He was wearing strange leather gloves which had what almost looked like the claws on a sky-hook attached, with wires trailing a motor at the base of each glove. It went without saying that weapons such as those would do crippling damage up close.

A final piece of information on the wanted poster jarred Elizabeth a bit. "Last sighted near Innovator's Span." Innovator's Span was a small district near Fort Frolic which was themed around selling the latest technological advances in Rapture. It had been condemned when Fontaine was killed several months ago, and of course, it was where Lutece Labs was situated.

Hopefully they wouldn't run into this "Jacob Blott," or anyone for that matter. After what happened with Daisy Fitzroy, and to a lesser extent, Booker, Elizabeth knew she could kill someone if the situation required it. But that didn't make her any less uneasy. The Luteces were not clearly not suited to combat, and would clearly be no help. Elizabeth wryly realized she was now in Booker's place, the Luteces in her's. The gun kept snugly by her waist felt all the more welcome.

While Elizabeth had been caught up in her thoughts, the line had steadily wound down. Now they were next. Within a few minutes, they'd be in a bathysphere, on their way to Lutece Labs and then, the surface. Elizabeth looked through the endless sea of doors she could sense around her. Many of them showed terrible fates for them upon reaching Innovator's Span. She hoped none of those doors were for this Rapture.


	3. Innovator's Span

_This chapter is really long, probably longer than the first two combined. I couldn't find a good spot to break them up. _

_Also an important warning, this chapter is really dark. Probably the darkest thing I've ever written in a serious fanfic. There's death, there's a lot of gore, and something really awful happens to someone so if you're squeamish be warned. _

3.

Innovator's Span

After an hour more of waiting than Elizabeth had hoped, the group finally purchased their bathysphere tickets. Elizabeth took up the lead, going to the nearest bathysphere and handing her ticket to the attendant without a word. The Luteces did the same, Robert holding out his hand to help Rosalind in. They had deliberately purchased a smaller bathysphere with barely enough room for the three of them, to allow for privacy. The attendant grabbed the bathysphere's hinged door, then slammed it shut. The locking mechanisms clicked into place and the bathysphere descended into the water.

Elizabeth had seated herself across from the Luteces. She leaned back and crossed her arms. "So," she began, "What did you want to talk about?"

"I feel if we're going to risk ourselves on this little side errand we deserve some honesty about what's going on," Rosalind demanded. "How, pray tell, do you plan to get us out of Rapture exactly?"

"And who are you?" Robert scrunched his eyebrows together in thought. "Actually, I'm starting to think the more delicious question would be _what_ are you?"

"We'll get out just like this. A bathysphere to the surface." Elizabeth pulled a cigarette and a lighter from her shirt pocket. She lit it and began to smoke.

"You don't think we've considered that? These bathyspheres run on pre-determined routes governed by the Thinker. We can't change where one is going. Meanwhile personal bathyspheres are designed to run out of oxygen long before the time it would take to reach the surface." Rosalind glared at Elizabeth.

"I meant the ones at the Rapture Welcome Center." Elizabeth paused to blow out a cloud of smoke.

"The ones Ryan has shut down and, according to some reliable sources, has placed a genetic lock upon which would prevent us from using them even if we could reach them?" While normally the optimist of the two, Robert was beginning to question this plan's chances of success as well.

"I can get past the gene lock. Just trust me."

The bathysphere lurched to a halt before the Luteces could question Elizabeth further. She immediately got up, pushing the door open. An attendant intended to open the door himself jumped away in surprise. Robert frowned at Elizabeth's sudden exit. Her evasion of his "what are you" question had not gone unnoticed.

###

Fort Frolic was bristling with activity. There were street performers, stands advertising the latest plasmids and other technologies, even a raffle to win a free all day pass to Arcadia. While not as frequent, or even common, Elizabeth couldn't help but notice the wanted posters for Jacob Blott strewn around. Each one listing in bold letters that he was suspected to be hiding in Innovator's Span.

"It's not much farther," Elizabeth led them past the crowds, the shops, past any sign of life. They came to a hastily erected fence, covered in signs labeled "condemned by order of Andrew Ryan" and "no trespassing".

Behind the fence, the city's lighting had been shut off, and Elizabeth could just barely make out an unlit billboard for "Innovator's Span". The fence itself was full of crudely torn holes. It appeared Rapture's police had more pressing matters than making sure a condemned block remained condemned.

Elizabeth crouched down to crawl through the nearest hole in the fence.

"Will you at least tell us why we're on this errand?" Rosalind asked as she followed Elizabeth through the fence.

"I need to get some infusions from Lutece Labs. Think of it as a fee for my services."

"I don't recall you ever mentioning that your 'services' were anything other charity," Robert said wryly.

Elizabeth chose to ignore his comment. She walked up to the Securis bulkhead, which automatically triggered at her presence.

"Figures, they didn't even bother shutting the door off."

Robert and Rosalind followed her into the darkness ahead. The door ceiled shut behind them with a metallic thunk, and the three were inside Innovator's Span. After exiting the opposite bulkhead, Elizabeth held up her hand to stop the Luteces. She would need to get her bearings before they could progress any father.

Much like the Rapture she had visited with Booker, this area had the electricity cut off in most places. It gave Innovator's Span a foreboding air, as if a splicer or regular maniac could jump out at any moment from any location. Luckily there had not been enough time for the buildings themselves to decay, so there was no water leakage to worry about.

Elizabeth squinted, looking for any signs or direction towards Lutece Labs.

"You are aware we know where our own store is located," Rosalind piped up. "Or if you want to stand around in the vain hope you can find it on your own…"

She sighed and let Rosalind take the lead. As they walked farther in to Innovator's Span it became clear that they were not alone. Storefront windows on nearly every shop had been smashed. Empty bottles of plasmids, EVE, and even some Lutece infusions were strewn about on the floor. Other debris, mangled beyond recognition, could be seen scattered on the ground as well.

"It's not much farther." Robert gestured to an even darker space ahead. Elizabeth nodded in acknowledge meant and picked up her pace. Her foot caught against something on the floor she had overlooked.

She steadied herself, then squatted down to investigate the object which had nearly tripped her. It was a scuffed, but still functional audio-diary. Elizabeth would have just ignored the recording device, but Booker had always listened to the voxophones in Columbia, even going out of his way to find them. She was the Luteces' Booker now, and while Booker DeWitt was many unpleasant things, he did seem to know what he was doing in getting her out of Columbia.

With that in mind, Elizabeth picked up the audio-diary and pressed play.

A scratchy voice sounded out from the audio-diary, stopping the Luteces in their tracks. They huddled around Elizabeth to listen in.

"This place is perfect," the voice on the tape said. "Ain't nothing like Pauper's Drop, where everyone's gotta' grudge and inhibitions loose enough to act on it. Here's an unclaimed frontier. I'm in charge, and the rejects who come crawling in after me are gonna' know it."

"Well he sounded quite unpleasant." Rosalind rolled her eyes.

"Jacob Blott…" Elizabeth said.

"Who?" The Luteces both stared at her.

"Some criminal I kept seeing wanted posters of on the way here. That be must be him on the audio-diary." Now Elizabeth understood why Booker listened to these. She now had a sample of Blott, how he thought, how he acted. It wasn't much, but she would be a little more prepared for the type of person Jacob Blott was than he for her. Not that she was planning on meeting him any time soon.

A sudden crunch like shoes on glass came from behind the three, who froze.

"Oh look," A splicer emerged from the shadows, holding old fishing hooks in both his hands. "Someone new!" He raised up his right arm as if to throw one of the hooks at Elizabeth.

She whirled around, drawing her handgun in the meantime, and fired. The shot went wide and knocked the hook out of the splicer's hand, but didn't injure him.

"A naughty one... the king's not going to like you!" He charged at Elizabeth and the Luteces. They dived out of the way and scattered in separate directions. Elizabeth fired again, hitting the splicer in the shoulder. He yowled in pain, and was answered by cries of anger coming from all directions.

Three splicers emerged from the shadows, two more crawled out from the shattered windows of an appliance shop. Most were armed with crowbars or homemade knives, but one had a pistol.

"Elizabeth, catch!" Robert tossed a rust-covered wrench in her direction. She grabbed hold of it by the very tip. The wrench's momentum nearly pulling her down with it.

"Wow, so that's what it feels like." Elizabeth grasped the wrench with both hands.

The splicer she had shot recovered from the shock and stumbled towards her, clutching his wounded shoulder with his free hand. Elizabeth ran to the splicer and brought her wrench down on the splicer's head. Blood splattered Elizabeth's face and the splicer fell to the ground.

When she had killed Daisy Fitzroy, Elizabeth had been in shock. When she drowned Songbird and then Booker, she hadn't felt as terrible, but still upset. But on this most recent life taken, to her surprise, Elizabeth felt nothing.

The remaining splicers weren't deterred. Two had cornered the Luteces. The other three, including the armed one, were hiding. A shot rang out and a bullet collided with the ground next to Elizabeth. She ran towards the Luteces, firing a blast of Old Man Winter at each of the splicers. With another swing from her wrench, she shattered both of them. Rosalind scowled at the crumbled remains and stomped on the nearest shard.

Now that the Luteces were safe, Elizabeth ran off to find the splicer with the gun. Another shot rang out and grazed Elizabeth's arm. She fell to her knees, clutching the wound.

"Here, I found some medical supplies!" Rosalind tossed a first aid kit towards Elizabeth. She fought past the pain to reach out and catch the kit.

"Much obliged." Elizabeth pulled the kit open and withdrew a role of bandages. She didn't have time for antiseptics or any true first aid. Instead she just wrapped the bandages hastily around her wound and discarded the kit.

Something wasn't right. Elizabeth had made herself a prime target while bandaging herself. Why hadn't the splicer shot again? A piercing shriek answered her question.

"Ahh! Daddy, help me!" A Little Sister climbed over one of broken storefront windows. The three remaining splicers were in hot pursuit.

From behind her, Elizabeth heard Rosalind gasp.

"Eleanor?!"

The Little Sister continued to scream as splicers chased towards a wall. She would be trapped and helpless.

"Daddy!" An inhuman roar answered the girl's plea. From the direction the Luteces had told Elizabeth to go, a massive Big Daddy charged out.

He didn't resemble any of the Big Daddies Elizabeth or the Luteces had seen before. This one stood upright with no hunch, his armor was more form fitting and the diving helmet was oblong rather than spherical. A Greek delta symbol was engraved on his left glove.

Subject Delta impaled the splicer nearest to him on his drill before the splicer had any time to react. He roared and shot a Devil's Kiss plasmid at the second splicer, then grabbed the final one by the neck and threw him across the room. The splicer landed with a wet crunch and didn't get up.

"You're the best, Daddy!" Eleanor wrapped her arms around Delta's leg. He ruffled her hair, then picked Eleanor up and sat her on his shoulders.

Rosalind had stepped forward during the commotion and was now standing side-by-side to Elizabeth.

"That's Eleanor Lamb," She said in awe. "Sophia's daughter. What have they done to her?"

"I would assume it's obvious from the girl's appearance and fixation on that Big Daddy," Robert quipped, walking up to Rosalind and Elizabeth.

"I was speaking rhetorically and I'm certain you were already aware of that."

Elizabeth drowned out the Luteces' mock-arguing and focused on Delta. As long as they didn't touch Eleanor, he would leave them alone and provide a deterrent from any further splicer ambushes.

"Come on, let's follow him." Elizabeth slowly approached Delta, making sure not to get too close.

Content that Eleanor was safe, Subject Delta turned around and trundled back in the direction he came.

"There's lots of angels that way, Daddy. But the Bad Man doesn't let me get near them." Eleanor pointed straight ahead. Delta rumbled in response.

###

With Delta as an unknowing bodyguard, Elizabeth and the Luteces were able to reach Lutece Labs without any further hazards. The windows were all shattered and the front doors had been torn from their hinges. The "Lutece Labs" sign was intact but unlit, as was a newer sign which read "Now a Subdivision of Fontaine Futuristics".

"Alliterative names are a constant?" Elizabeth chuckled to herself. She stepped through the ruined doorway and into the lab.

The inside of Lutece Labs had been ransacked beyond all recognition. Shelves were turned over, the wallpaper had been torn apart, empty bottles of infusions and plasmids lay broken on the floor. An audio-diary sat near the checkout counter, which had been defaced with all manner of lewd graffiti. Elizabeth took the audio-diary and pressed play.

"Oh yes," the voice was the same as the previous recording, "this place has everything. All the plasmids, all the EVE, all the anything you could ever need… and it's all mine! I drank so many of those infusions I bet I'm bullet-proof!"

"We need to find some infusions, then we can get out of here," Elizabeth ordered. She, Robert and Rosalind began to sift through the debris in hopes of finding any unopened bottles, but it was proving fruitless.

"There could be some upstairs." Robert pointed behind the counter, where an open door leading to a staircase could be seen. Elizabeth nodded in agreement.

Clutching her wrench tightly, Elizabeth ascended the stairs with the Luteces in tow. The upper floor was more of the same except for one detail. Sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room were five Lutece Labs infusions. Elizabeth froze, something wasn't right about this. It had to be a trap. She decided to step to the right and circle around from the side. With her first step forward, Elizabeth heard a loud snap.

She had broken a previously invisible wire at ankle level. Elizabeth stood motionless. On the other side of the room, a pile of debris began to shudder. The debris fell away, revealing a man with long, unkempt hair and tattered clothes. Worst of all were the makeshift skyhook-like gloves he wore.

"You woke the wrong dog!" Jacob Blott roared. "Ahrroooooo!"

Elizabeth dashed to the pedestal and opened a tear. She shoved four of the infusions into the tear, but grabbed the fifth for herself. Blott was distracted by the tear's appearance long enough for Elizabeth to pull the top off and down the infusion. She wiped her lips and fired a Shock Jockey bolt at Jacob. He recoiled from the electricity for a moment, but was not fully stunned as Elizabeth had planned.

"You think your little plasmids can hurt me? I'm Jacob! The Splicer King!" Elizabeth just withdrew a new pistol from the still open tear and shot him.

A strange yellow field crackled in the air around Jacob, deflecting the bullet.

"He's drank more than few of the magnetic repellant field infusions!" Rosalind cried out.

Jacob laughed and pressed his fingers to his palms, activating a pressure pad which started the hooks on the back of his hands. The makeshift weapons whirred while smoke belched out from the crude wiring further back on his gloves.

"Run!" Elizabeth turned towards the stairs and saw the Luteces were already halfway down. She ran down the stairs. Jacob chased after.

"Come back here so I can kill you!"

The three raced out the front door with Jacob in hot pursuit. A splicer drawn by the commotion ran over and tackled Rosalind.

"Go help her!" Robert shouted and pushed Elizabeth in Rosalind direction.

Rosalind the splicer were struggling against each other on the floor. The splicer was a woman whose hair had fallen out in large clumps.

"Gimme' your ADAM! Give it to me!" She clawed at Rosalind's face.

"I don't have any! Do I look like a Little Sister to you?" Rosalind spat at the splicer's face and she pulled back.

A shot rang out and the splicer fell over, dead. Rosalind looked in the opposite direction and saw Elizabeth still aiming her pistol at the splicer's corpse. She went over to Rosalind and pushed the splicer's body away, then helped Rosalind up.

"You alright?"

"I'm fine. Where's Robert—" A horrible scream came from behind them.

Jacob had caught up to Robert, and had snared Robert's left wrist in between two of the hooks on his glove. He smiled insanely and activated the hooks' spinning mechanism. Robert screamed so loudly his voice cracked.

What happened next was a blur to Elizabeth. She remembered sprinting towards Jacob, knocking Robert away and then bringing her wrench down the startled "Splicer King's" head again and again and again. When she finally let her wrench fall to the floor, Jacob's face was unrecognizable. Elizabeth panted as the adrenalin wore off. Then she heard the mixture of crying and groaning coming from the right.

Rosalind was hunched over Robert, who was moaning in pain through his gritted teeth. Elizabeth stared in confusion, then noticed blood pooling near her knee. She looked down at Jacob's body. There, lodged in the hooks of his glove, was Robert's hand. Elizabeth ran to the Luteces. The stump where Robert's hand had been was gushing blood. Everything had gone wrong. She had to do something and fast.

"We need to get him out of here, to a hospital!" Rosalind cried.

Elizabeth knelt down besides Robert and ignited her left hand with a Devil's Kiss plasmid. This sight got Robert's attention over the pain.

"W-what are you doing?!"

"I need to cauterize the wound!" Elizabeth grabbed Robert's arm and held the stump up to her burning hand.

"Are you bloody mad!? Just take me to a hospital!"

"If I don't do this now you're going to bleed out!" Elizabeth pressed the palm of her hand to Robert's wrist. He screamed. Rosalind cringed as well, ultimately having to turn her head away.

Smoke wafted out from around Elizabeth's hand. Robert also noticed a smell not unlike meat being cooked. Upon registering that the smell was coming from his own flesh, he blacked out.


	4. Lending a Hand

4.

Lending a Hand

Robert flashed in and out of consciousness, picking up bits and pieces of conversation.

"Just open a tear to a hospital!"

"No, we need to stay in this reality. It's… complicated."

He could faintly remember being carried somewhere, then a long period of blackness.

###

"I think he's waking up," a voice, possibly Rosalind's said, though in his still half-conscious state Robert could not be certain.

Robert groaned and tried to force his eyes open. He was incredibly groggy, as if something else had been done to him post-limb cauterization. His eyes opened in a tiny sliver, then shut immediately as the light burned them. Instead, Robert tried moving his right arm, only to find it was restrained at the elbow and wrist.

"Brother, can you hear me?" That was definitely Rosalind. Her voiced provided enough motivation for Robert to try opening his eyes once again. The light was still searing, but he darted his gaze in the direction of Rosalind's voice.

Her face was trying to keep its normal stoic lack of expression, but cracks of both anxiety and relief were showing through.

"Where… where are we?" Robert rasped out, his throat uncomfortably dry.

"Persephone Correctional Facility," Rosalind answered. "It was the nearest location which offered medical treatment."

"And my… hand?" Robert tried to move his left arm, but it was restrained as well. Oddly there was a restraint at the wrist as well, which he though odd considering they should not be anything down there.

"I'll let him explain." Rosalind gestured to a man in a surgical gown.

He stripped off his gloves, then gave a quick bow. "Dr. Edward Grimes, at your service." Grimes bent down and unlatched the leather restraints on Robert's left arm. "Don't be shy, you can look now."

Robert held up his arm and gasped. Attached to the base of his wrist was some sort of prosthetic hand, closely resembling the glove of a Big Daddy. It was much smaller than a Daddy's, matching the size of a normal human's. Several clear tubes run from the hand's base into veins in his arm. They were filled with a red liquid, presumably his own blood, which was being transferred in to the hand by one tube, and out the other.

"It took a whole lot of splicing, stem-cell modification, and some state of the art robotics, but I think it came out nicely." Grimes patted his hands together in self-congratulation.

Robert continued to stare at his new hand. He opened and closed it several times, then started moving the fingers individually.

"The base of the hand is hooked up to your neural pathways, so you should be able to move as if it was your own flesh and blood. You can detect pressure, but I couldn't get a true sense of touch in it though," Grimes explained. "You see this is the same technology we use when making Big Daddies and whether or not they can feel isn't very high up on our list of priorities."

"Well… I suppose… thank you?" Robert was more confused than anything else at the moment. Not that he wasn't grateful for a new hand.

"Only the best for friends of Dr. Lamb." Grimes turned away from Robert and picked up several x-ray charts from a nearby counter.

"But she's a prisoner here." Robert looked over at Rosalind for an answer. "Isn't she?"

"You've been under sedation for the past five days, brother. Much has transpired, and we have a lot to discuss."

###

Sofia Lamb was the tallest woman that Elizabeth had ever met. She towered over everyone in any given room. She had not been part of Elizabeth's plan for evacuating the Luteces, but then again neither had Robert getting his hand torn off. Sofia was accommodating enough, however. Apparently she and Rosalind had been friends before Sofia was incarcerated.

Elizabeth had told Sofia nothing of her plans. Presenting the Luteces was enough to gain Lamb's help, and Sofia was also kept busy with her own agenda. Most of the time, Elizabeth was forced to remain in a cell with Rosalind to "keep up appearances," as Sofia's control over Persephone was a closely guarded secret. To pass the time Elizabeth had been given a book called _Unity and Metamorphosis _to read.

She had just started her fourth rereading when Rosalind had been summoned to the medical chambers. Hopefully this meant Robert's condition had improved, and they could resume their trip to the surface post haste. It was getting uncomfortably close to the thirty-first. No matter how much Elizabeth felt she owed the Luteces this in exchange for reuniting her with Booker and breaking the circle, nothing would keep her from ending the final Comstock. If that meant leaving this Robert and Rosalind to die, so be it. Elizabeth was so caught up in these thoughts, and the book still open in her lap, that she did not hear the cell door open.

"Enjoying my book?" Sofia Lamb asked.

Elizabeth snapped to attention and closed the book. "It's interesting. I don't think I agree with your views. Unity can't work that way, not with all the different types of people in the world."

Sofia frowned. "Those who cannot conform are a detriment to society. They are immovable forces against the greater good. That is why they must be," She narrowed her eyes and scowled at the mere thought of these malcontents, "removed."

"Either way, Robert has made a full recovery, let us go visit him." Sofia motioned for Elizabeth to follow her out of the cell. Elizabeth stood up and walked out with her towards the medical center.

###

"Not to imply that I am in any way ungrateful for your work," Robert began, "but could you not have made my hand slightly more 'lifelike' in appearance?"

"I experiment on Littler Sisters and Big Daddies for living. If you want cosmetic surgery, go see Dr. Steinman," Dr. Grimes scoffed.

"But how I am going to explain this on the surface?" Robert asked. Neither he nor Rosalind noticed Sofia and Elizabeth enter the room.

"Surface?" Sofia raised her eyebrow.

"Just say you invented it," Elizabeth answered, ignoring Dr. Lamb's interjection.

"I'm a theoretical physicist. I wouldn't know the first thing about creating a biomechanical prosthesis."

"The fact that you knew to call it that would be enough to fool most people."

"What… did you say… about the surface?!" Sofia yelled, drawing all attention in the room back to her.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Sofia," Rosalind said. "I've been so preoccupied that I'd forgotten to inform you. Miss Elizabeth here is taking Robert and I out of Rapture. Now that he is healed we shall be resuming out escape. Thank you again for all you have done for us."

Sofia glared and slammed the door behind her. "No one is going anywhere."


	5. Persephone Correctional Facility

5.

Persephone Correctional Facility

Tension filled the doctor's room as Sofia Lamb glared at her guests.

"As you seem rather surprised, I'll repeat myself," Sofia scowled. "No one is going anywhere."

"You don't understand. We _have_ to leave, and I don't see why it would bother you," Rosalind said.

"I hate Andrew Ryan and all that he stands for, but there is one subject on which we agree. No one can be allowed to leave Rapture, not even you." Sofia stared at Rosalind, neither woman backing down from their position.

"No, there simply is no other option besides egress. Robert and I cannot live here any longer."

"Just tell her the truth," Robert piped up. He entwined his good hand with Rosalind's.

Rosalind sighed. "Very well. I didn't want to concern you with this, Sofia. If you must know, we need to leave Rapture because… I am pregnant."

Sofia's mouth crinkled into a frown. "What? Con…gratu…lations…?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't see why that prevents you from staying. Has the father abandoned you? Is that it?" Sofia calmed and walked to Rosalind. She patted Rosalind on the shoulder. "Oh don't worry, Rosa. The Family will take care of you and your child. We all belong to each other, after all."

Rosalind coughed nervously. "Actually the father has not 'abandoned' me, in fact he is…" Sofia raised her eyebrow, wondering what Rosalind could mean. If the father was not escaping with her, then how could it not been seen as abandonment? It was then Sofia noticed the way Robert held Rosalind's hand. How he stared at Rosalind while she spoke. Realization hit Sofia and jumped away in shock.

"Oh… oh my God! That's disgusting!"

"No, you don't understand!" Robert clutched Rosalind's hand tighter. "I'm not actually-"

"We're not actually siblings," Rosalind interrupted. "This is going to sound very strange, but I assure it is the truth."

Elizabeth tuned out the Luteces' attempts to explain to Sofia how their relationship was not technically incest. She hadn't trusted Sofia Lamb from the moment they'd met, and Elizabeth was now certain they would not be leaving Persephone without a fight. She could open a tear, even escape through one, but Elizabeth didn't like the idea of Sofia Lamb having knowledge about that sort of power. She could see quite a few doors in which Dr. Lamb did horrible things with Rapture's technology. If she tried to harness the power of tears on top of that, those realities would become even more horrific.

Wordlessly, Elizabeth approached Sofia, still listening to the Luteces' attempt to explain trans-dimensional travel. Elizabeth socked Sofia in the jaw, taking the doctor off guard and sending her tumbling to the floor.

"We're leaving, now!" Elizabeth shoved the door open and ran out, barely waiting for the Luteces to follow.

"Stop them!" Sofia yelled in the distance.

The three ran through the cramped, twisting halls of Persephone Correctional Facility. Sofia appeared to have already contacted the guards, as the sound of booted footsteps was growing ever closer. Elizabeth chose to risk opening a tear and brought a Columbian Mosquito Turret into the hall behind them.

Gunfire, hopefully the Mosquito's, rang out but Elizabeth didn't look back to be certain. The reality of how difficult it would likely be to escape a prison was beginning to dawn on her.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Robert called out.

"I have no idea!" Elizabeth yelled back. She glanced back at Robert. He was lagging behind Rosalind and Elizabeth, still weak from his previous surgery and likely still partially-sedated. Rosalind grabbed Robert by his good arm and pulled him along with her. It was unfortunately clear that they could not keep going like this.

There was a large door up ahead, locked. Elizabeth began to charge up a Shock Jockey trap, flinging it down just behind the Luteces. It would slow their pursuers down, hopefully long enough for Elizabeth to get the door open. She opened a small tear and grabbed a lock pick from it.

"Just a minute…" Elizabeth bit her lip in concentration. She deftly moved the pick into the open lock, trying to hit just the right tumbler.

The lock clicked and Elizabeth smiled. She pushed the door open and came face to face with Sofia Lamb.

"I've been here long enough to know every inch of this prison," Sofia said. She kept her right hand over the rapidly-forming bruise where Elizabeth had hit her moments ago. "Where to hide; how to reach any part of the prison in the fastest manner possible. You've underestimated me, Miss Elizabeth."

"Please Sofia, let us go," Rosalind pleaded. "We won't tell a soul about Rapture. Would you do it for us? For me?"

Sofia did not even pause to consider her answer. "No." She pointed at Elizabeth and the Luteces. Elizabeth heard the cocking of guns from guards she had not realized had caught up to them. "I'm sorry, but the needs of Rapture outweigh the needs of you."

"Wait!" Elizabeth held up her arms in surrender. "I know what happened to you daughter!"

Sofia waved dismissively at the guards. The sights of relief from the Luteces told Elizabeth that the guards had lowered their weapons.

"Speak."

"If I tell you where she is, you let us go." Elizabeth stared down Sofia, unwilling the budge.

"Where is she? What happened to her?"

"Eleanor is a Little Sister. She was being guarded by a Big Daddy that looked…. Different… from the others, had a delta symbol on its left glove," Elizabeth explained. "If you find the Big Daddy…"  
"…I'll find her." Sofia concluded.

"So, we'll just be going now," Elizabeth lowered her arms from their surrender position.

"Knock them out," Sofia ordered. Elizabeth felt a searing pain to the back of her head, then knew no more.


	6. Where She Was

_A slight warning, this chapter discusses suicide. _

6.

Where She Was

"You're hurting her!"

"She's got to come with me!"

"She's not your child."

"She IS mine!"

"The tear is closing!"

"Shut it down. Shut down the machine!"

"You've got to pull her through!"

"Shut down the machine!"

"No! She's not through!"

"Hurry!"

"Shut it down!"

"Oh, no, no, look out!"

###

Elizabeth had been unable to stay in Columbia at that moment. The emotion, the horror as the tear closed around Anna's neck, had been too much and she involuntarily shifted to another reality. She tried to gasp for air, but her mouth and lungs filled with water.

She was in a small corridor, with a strange metal door in front of her. Elizabeth thrashed about wildly, too preoccupied with drowning to think of opening a tear to escape. There was a deep grinding noise coming from behind her, and the water level began to lower. Elizabeth descended with the receding water and was left on her hands and knees. She coughed up the already inhaled water from her lungs, then dry-heaved for several moments after. Once her lungs were filled with air rather than water, Elizabeth looked up and saw the door in front of her was open.

"Look!" The voice of a young girl cried out. "There's a lady in the airlock!"

Elizabeth looked around for the source of the voice, and spied a blonde girl pointing towards her. A man came up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Stay away, Sally," The man slurred. He tugged on Sally's shoulder, leading away from Elizabeth. "She's... she's just a shplisher…" He hiccupped and that seemed to clear his mind somewhat, as he straightened his back and walked without swerving.

A nearby guide light in the corridor caught the man's face.

"Booker?" Elizabeth gasped. Booker was either too far away, or too drunk, to hear her. Then Elizabeth noticed Booker's hair, it was deathly white. White like… "Comstock!" Memories of what had just transpired with Anna flooded back to her.

Elizabeth shakily got to her feet and focused on returning to Columbia. This weird not-Booker didn't matter, not right now. Comstock had to pay, had to _die_, for what he had done.

###

In an instant, Elizabeth was back in Lutece Labs, ready to make Comstock pay. She immediately noticed something was wrong. The sun shining through the nearby kitchen window meant it was daytime, when Anna's abduction had taken place at night on both sides. More importantly, the lab was completely devoid of life. There was a terrible stench in the air, but Elizabeth was too on edge to notice.

"Comstock?" Elizabeth called out. There was no answer.

"Madame Lutece?" Again nothing. "Mister Lutece?"

Elizabeth looked to her sides and on the ground. There was a large puddle of dried blood by the wall. She nearly dry-heaved again upon realizing it was most likely Anna's.

"Wait," She thought aloud. "If the blood is dry…" Elizabeth bent down and ran her index finger across the puddle. It was nothing more than a stain at this point. She shot up, looking around frantically for a sign to disprove her notion. That she hadn't returned weeks if not months after her last visit, instead of the same time as her initial departure.

She banged her fist against the inactive Lutece device. Now directly looking at it, Elizabeth noticed the device was different as well. It was covered in scratches and dents, as if someone had gone at it with a blunt weapon. The device appeared to have been rendered un-operational, or at least too damaged to risk activating again without a great risk of danger.

"Where-, _when_ am I?" The horrible smell came back to Elizabeth. She turned around, towards the front room, looking for its source. Her jaw dropped. Hanging silently from nooses attached to the rafters were the bodies of Robert and Rosalind.

"Inadvertently decapitating a child weighs heavily on one's conscience," Rosalind Lutece, Elizabeth's Rosalind, said. She and Robert had appeared from out of thin air as per the norm. Elizabeth was too distressed by everything going on to wonder why they had waited until she found their bodies to show themselves.

"Some individuals simply cannot cope with such a burden." Robert kept his head down.

Elizabeth looked from Rosalind to Robert in a silent plea for explanation. "What's going on? How did this happen?"

"You have all the knowledge we do," Rosalind said. She walked over to the other Luteces' corpses and picked up one of two stepping stools lying on their sides nearby, presumably used for the hanging. Robert did the same.

"We cannot continue to treat you like a child, nor shelter you from the darker aspects of your situation," Robert added. He and Rosalind set the stools right side up. They climbed on them and began to work at removing their other-selves' bodies from their nooses.

"If you want answers, you need to trust your own abilities." Rosalind undid the knot of her other's noose, and the dead Rosalind fell to the floor. The other Robert's body fell a second later.

"I thought that what Comstock did to me was unforgivable… But that was _nothing_! This Anna," Elizabeth pointed to the dried bloodstain on the floor, "she lost _everything_!" Elizabeth clenched her fists and glared at the imagined image of Comstock. "He has to pay. He has to _die_."

"Well you have all the means necessary to accomplish such a goal," Robert spoke up. He and Rosalind had laid their corpses out and were placing the bodies' hands over their chests.

"There, a much more respectable way to be discovered when the authorities notice our absence." Rosalind stood up turned away from the corpses to look at Elizabeth. "Well? What are you going to do now?"

"He's…" Elizabeth thought back, looking through the countless doors in search one that would hopefully explain what happened to Comstock. One thought interrupted her search, as she recalled the white-haired Booker in… "Rapture. Comstock is in Rapture."

"You're going to go after him?" Rosalind asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, and when I find him, I'll kill him."

The Luteces nodded. Robert frowned, debating what he was about to do next.

"Actually, Elizabeth," He stared directly into Elizabeth's eyes without any interruption, a very unsettling trait both Luteces possessed. Elizabeth had asked them about it before, but was never given an answer. "While you are in Rapture, if it would not inconvenience you, there is a favor-"

"Brother, you aren't honestly going to ask this of her, are you?" Rosalind interrupted.

"It's just that she's going to be in the right place in the right time. There's no harm in asking."

"What do you want?" Elizabeth glared at Robert.

"There are two… people… in Rapture who, if allowed to continue on their current path, will die there. Quite horribly."

"And you want me to get them out?"

"It would mean a great deal to the both of us," Robert answered.

Elizabeth groaned and covered her face with her palm. The plan brewing in her mind would already require months of preparation, and this would only complicate things further. Besides, why should she help the Luteces? It may have been at Comstock's orders, but they were the ones who actually stole her.

Then again, they were also the ones who indirectly saved her. Who reunited her with Booker, if only for a brief time. They had "died" trying to save her even before then.

Elizabeth lowered her hand and glared straight at the twins. "Who are they?"

"Again, you already know," Rosalind answered. "You just need to open your mind to all the knowledge it is now privy to."

Elizabeth focused on the doors, looking into Rapture. She saw them, saw what would happen, what had _already_ happened, and she understood.

"Fine," Elizabeth held out her hand. She shook Robert's hand, then Rosalind's. "I'll get them out."


End file.
